04. Februar 2009  
Finland  
Artistic Gymnastics

Former World champion Tanskanen - Technical Director now

Jani TANSKANEN (FIN),
... new targets after a very long and successful career...!

Finnish Gymnastics Federation (Svoli) has appointed former top gymnast Jani TANSKANEN (33) as Technical Director for men’s artistic gymnastics.

The World Champion on high bar 1997 (Lausanne) is a familiar face to international gymnastics scene thanks to his long career as a gymnast.

Tanskanen competed in all eleven World Championships from 1994 (Brisbane) up to the 2007 Worlds in Stuttgart.
He also participated in numerous world cup events < photo left: World Cup 2008 in Cottbus)  and eleven times in European Championships.

Jani TANSKANEN finished his international career as a gymnast in November 2008 at the DTB Cup in  Stuttgart, and his national career in front of a home crowd in his hometown Jyväskylä on December 9th 2008.


Finnish Gymnastics Federation has appointed Jani Tanskanen as Technical Director
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For more than one and a half decades this Finnish gymnast was one of the leading and extraordinary athletes on the international artistic gymnastics scene!

** Photo, right: Tanskanen at his last Worlds, Stuttgart 2007

Until May Tanskanen will work part time for the federation while finishing his studies at the University of Jyväskylä.
He will graduate as a Master of Sport and Health sciences, majoring in Sports Administration.
From 1st June onwards he will start working full time.

"I´m very excited about this opportunity. I´m also very motivated and really looking forward to working for the benefit of gymnasts and gymnastics in Finland.
In a way I feel that I’ve got so much from doing gymnastics that now it is my turn to (at least try to) give something back. Of course there are a lot of new things to learn, but I hope that with hard work and strong determination (as a gymnast) I will manage this challenge", Tanskanen said.

** source: Svoli press-release